At what age are you senior in your company? It depends on who you ask the question. In this study conducted by Ipsos for the Equal Skills Association, which brings together some 2,000 recruiters committed against discrimination in hiring, two audiences were interviewed: candidates aged 40 and over, and recruiters.
For recruiters, you go into the “senior” category just before fifty years – 49.6 years exactly -, and you can be considered as such if you have sixteen years of seniority in the same position. Candidates see themselves younger, longer. For them, it is only at 53 years old – 52.7 years old exactly – that one enters this category. According to them, it is necessary to have spent more time in the same position: 18.5 years, or two and a half years more compared to what recruiters think.
Recruiters do not select senior candidates because they fear integration difficulties within younger teams, resistance to organizational change and insufficient digital skills. They are also reluctant to present a candidate who will have little working time left before retirement and whose health is presumed to be more fragile.
That’s not how seniors see themselves. For them, what comes in number 1 is the time he will stay before retirement. They understand that this point sets recruiters back. However, at fifty, in the majority of cases, an employee still has almost a quarter of his professional life ahead of him, as recalled by Stéphanie Lecerf, the president of the Equal Competence association. Another point that candidates find problematic: skills. But not because they would miss some, but because they would have too many compared to the position offered.
France is below the European average for the employment rate of 60-64 year olds. For recruitment professionals, it would have to go through a law. They are 76% in favor of a system that would require companies to recruit seniors.